Sick fish. Sick river. The Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) needs your help to save the Susquehanna River and the smallmouth bass fishery that has been plagued by disease. You may have seen the recent news stories and letters to the editor in the Harrisburg Patriot-News describing how the PFBC has asked the Department of Environmental Protection to place the Susquehanna River on the federal list of impaired and threatened waters, commonly known as the 303(d) list.
Adding the Susquehanna to the list as a “high priority” impaired water would trigger a two-year timeline under federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations for state regulators to develop a comprehensive plan to clean up the river by reducing the amount of pollutants from contributing sources. This pollution diet is called a total maximum daily load (TMDL) and is already in place on 6,490 miles of impaired streams and rivers in the state and will be developed on another 9,801 miles, according to DEP’s draft 2012 Pennsylvania Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report.
Unfortunately, DEP did not list the river in its draft 2012 Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report. The full report is available by searching for 303(d) on DEP’s web site at www.depweb.state.pa.us.
You can help by submitting comments to DEP supporting the Fish and Boat Commission’s request.
Comments must be received by DEP by May 22 and should be sent to: Molly Pulket, Division of Water Quality Standards, Bureau of Point and Non-Point Source Management, P.O. Box 8774, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8467 or send email to: mpulket@pa.gov.
To read more about the PFBC’s position, please review the “As I See It” editorial which appeared in the April 27 Patriot-News and online at Pennlive.com at: http://m1e.net/c?55641123-
We need your help to convince DEP to act now before the fishery collapses and the time for action is too late.
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